Part II: The Barnett-Leon plan would fix our immigration problem at its root, not at our border

A Guatemalan woman and her child who have been waiting since 6 a.m. seeking asylum wait on the Mexican side of the international bridge to enter the U.S in Brownsville, Texas, on Wednesday, June 27, 2018.(Photo: Courtney Sacco/USA TODAY NETWORK)

In mycolumn yesterday, I raised the question of why the flow of undocumented people from south of the border is perceived to be such a huge problem. And I promised to offer a solution to the issue, which I deemed not to be nearly as big of a problem for us as some politicians would have you believe.

Wilfredo Leon, publisher of Latino newspaper(Photo: Heidi Heilbrunn)

It’s a pretty radical solution – but it’s a lot more sensible than building a huge wall and spending billions of dollars at the border the way we’re doing now.

Instead of trying to plug up the holes in the dam, what we need to do is drain the lake. What I mean is address the issues that are causing people to try to cross our border. That not only would save us from having to fight this endless battle against people trying to get in; it also would make life better on the other side of the border and improve relations between the United States and our neighbors to the south.

I suggest a two-pronged approach: 1) Use our economic power to improve the economies of countries where people are fleeing poverty. And 2) use our military power to rein in the criminals who are devastating countries such as El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.

Before you say, hold on, we can’t afford to try to stimulate the economies of the poor nations of our hemisphere, think back to the early post World War II era.

Europe and Japan were in shambles. But our leaders – both Democrats and Republicans – realized that it was in our best interest for these countries to rebuild their infrastructure and their economies. The Marshall Plan did just that.

Think about it: We were able to help countries – some of them our mortal enemies just a few years earlier – to get on their feet and become our friends. These aren’t tiny countries like El Salvador. And I'm not saying we can bring all those countries up to our standard of living. Just give them some targeted assistance to put them on the path out of national poverty.

If the United States government wasn’t burning money by detaining people trying to get into the country and beefing up security on the border, we could use that money to try to do something about the problems that are causing people to flee from their homelands.

To get a second opinion, I did what I usually do whenever I want to find out what’s really going on with things like immigration: I check with Wilfredo Leon. He’s the publisher of Latino, a Greenville-based Spanish-language newspaper that provides local, national and international news to the Hispanic community of the Upstate.

I told him about my idea of trying to use America’s economic clout to improve the economic conditions in Latin America.

“I’ve been advocating that for many, many years,” he said. “I think that has to be a part of the solution.”

But he added, “It cannot just be the sole responsibility of the U.S. I think that these countries also have to bear into the responsibility of addressing the issues affecting their own people.” I concur.

Even more urgent now, probably, is the issue of the lawlessness that’s driving people away from their homes in Central America.

Now, I’ve never been one to advocate military action unless it's the only moral choice. But if, as many have said, this immigration problem is a national security issue, it seems like it could be for the common good to put some of these thugs out of business.

My friend Wilfredo Leon takes a harder line on this than I do. He says we need to kill them all, and he uses history to back up his point. He cites cases in Peru and Colombia, in which military forces wiped out the drug lords and guerrillas. Law and order prevails in those countries now.

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A United States Border Patrol air boat travels on the Rio Grande along the United States-Mexico border in Laredo, Texas, on April 9, 2018. On April 6, the Texas National Guard said it was dispatching around 250 guardsmen to help patrol Texas' 1,241-mile-long border with Mexico. A second round of guardsmen is expected to be deployed. COURTNEY SACCO, CALLER-TIMES VIA USA TODAY NETWORK

A United States Border Patrol agent catches a man along the banks of the Rio Grande after watching him illegally cross the river from Mexico into the United States in Laredo, Texas, on April 9, 2018. COURTNEY SACCO, CALLER-TIMES VIA USA TODAY NETWORK

Webb County Sheriff Martin Cuellar, left, gives a demonstration of Operation Border SMART during an interview outside his office in Laredo, Texas, on April 9, 2018. Cuellar said he welcomed more personnel on the border if they're helping behind the scenes, but thought a better use of money would be to fund technology-based initiatives. COURTNEY SACCO, CALLER-TIMES VIA USA TODAY NETWORK

A member of the Webb County Sheriff's office uses a camera to view the border during a demonstration of Operation Border SMART in Laredo, Texas, on April 9, 2018. The program uses drones, sensors and high-tech cameras to detect illegal activity along the border.
COURTNEY SACCO, CALLER-TIMES VIA USA TODAY NETWORK

A United States Border Patrol agent looks for a man along the banks of the Rio Grande after watching him illegally cross the river from Mexico into the United States in Laredo, Texas, on April 9, 2018. COURTNEY SACCO, CALLER-TIMES VIA USA TODAY NETWORK

A United States Border Patrol vehicle sits under a rail bridge along the Rio Grande along the United States-Mexico border in Laredo, Texas, on April 9, 2018. COURTNEY SACCO, CALLER-TIMES VIA USA TODAY NETWORK

Joseph Hein, 63, a fourth generation rancher, stands on the United States-Mexico border on his ranch outside Laredo, Texas, on April 9, 2018. He never feels threatened, he said, and doesn't believe there's an illegal immigration crisis. He said the thousands of National Guard troops ordered to the border recently by President Trump is not just a bad idea -- it's a huge waste of money. COURTNEY SACCO, CALLER-TIMES VIA USA TODAY NETWORK

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“You cannot be weak. It’s a war,” he said. “You have to go after them with the full force to be able to eradicate them.”

I know we’ve gone into wars before that we thought would be easy, only to see them drag on for years. But we’re not talking about fighting the military of these countries. We'd be up against just the criminals – and the local military would be on our side.

It doesn’t seem like it would put a great strain on our armed forces to deal with these bad guys so people won’t have to come knocking on our door to escape them. It seems like the humanitarian thing to do.

Wilfredo said he’s been making these arguments for years with our congressional delegation. He said he had former Rep. Bob Inglis convinced it was a good idea to address the issue at its root rather than battling it at the border.

But he said Congress would never do it.

“I am pretty sure that if you and I can come up with these ideas, it’s hard to believe that a Trey Gowdy and a Lindsey Graham and on and on and on cannot think about the same thing,” Wilfredo said.